Complications: Did you have any?

[Little Green 582]

I've seen a lot of folks summarize their surgeries with something like, "It's been wonderful, I wish I had done it sooner! I had a/some complication/s but they were fixed and now I'm doing great!"

I would love to hear some experiences from folks who have had complications - whether mild or severe. I've obviously read about different complications you can experience but would love to hear personal stories.

[more2love1381 10]

I had the sleeve about 5 weeks ago now.
At first, I had trouble getting any Water down. I stayed in the hospital an extra 3 days because I just couldn't drink anything. This Sunday was the first day since my surgery on June 24th that I didn't throw up everything I ate.
I literally had to drink my meals because food was just not sitting well with me. I also had fainting spells,
I assume because I refused to eat anything and I barely drink 12 oz of Fluid a day...

I've lost a little over 40 lbs and this has been a rocky road. But I'm doing better now
And there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

[The 147]

It's a good question - because the nature of an internet forum is going to distort what you see. Assume that you will always hear more from the people who had problems,

There appear to be a wide spectrum of people but that's an illusion (this is the case for ALL self selecting forums on the net) the site is populated by people who have chosen to be here, subsequently they aren't representative (they may have had issues they want to air, a need to share, they may crave a sense of belonging... none of these things are wrong but is DOESN'T make them average). Plenty of people may find these forums don't suit them, feel the surgery was routine and subsequently doesn't merit talking about or simply want to move on from the surgery and get on with life (personally I think I'm falling into this camp already). So you won't hear their experiences in places like this.

So, like any other self-selecting internet forum the contributors here are likely to be people who have something, rather than nothing, to report... so complications, issues, trauma and problems will ALWAYS be over-represented. That doesn't make it a bad thing, far from it those experiences are valuable, but it's not the same as this being representative.

If you want to know about incidence of complications you need some kind of inclusive audit of ALL surgeries. In the UK we have the National Bariatric Surgery Register (NSBR). The report from 2014 (which covers a 3 year period) gives the following headline figures:

• 161 surgeons from 137 hospitals recorded 32,073 operations

• The observed in-hospital mortality rate after primary surgery was 0.07% overall

• The recorded surgical complication rate overall for primary operations was 2.9%

It also states that those are comparable rates to other international data sources. All of which suggests they're worth taking notice of.

What they don't include are the minor complications you hear about a lot on here, so nausea and the like. All I can say about that is that the people who have nothing to tell are probably not here and if they are here are probably not posting much - it's the way of the web.

For me? No complications. Remarkably pain free and easy, despite the anxiety beforehand. And yes, I wish I'd done it years ago.

[summerset 5,261]

In your poll are only the short term complications listed. I didn't have any of these but I had lots of adhesions that made adhesiolysis necessary recently. Before that I had terrible reflux and a migrating lap band and needed conversion to bypass.

So I definitely have complications but not immediate ones.

[Steven1954 89]

I had the band in 2008. Went from 310 to 175. After six years severe complications began. Feb 2016 needed emergency removal and switch to gastric bypass. Six weeks later i could not drink liquids.

Er called it stricture. From 11/2016 had ten ballon endoscopies , a stent which broke lose causing three surgeries, two surgeries for total small bowel obstructions .

In the six months since removal of band my weight went from 175 to 235

my weight one year post revision is 157. Rough ride but what in life comes easy

I switched hospitals to columbia presbyterian in NYC to finally get it fixed

It was worth the rough journey but risk of adhesions is always present